June 21, 2024
Secure Matrix LLC has launched its first litigation, suing A Holdings (Line) ( 2:24-cv-00456), Bank of America ( 2:24-cv-00455), Binance ( 2:24-cv-00457), IBM ( 2:24-cv-00458), Rakuten ( 2:24-cv-00460), and Sony ( 2:24-cv-00459) in the Eastern District of Texas, as well as Microsoft ( 6:24-cv-00328) and Zoho ( 6:24-cv-00327) in the Western District of Texas. Asserting a single user authentication patent, the plaintiff targets the provision of websites, apps, and/or other software that allow users to authenticate by scanning a QR code with a mobile device.
The patent-in-suit (8,677,116), broadly geared toward using an authentication server that verifies a client based on a "reusable identifier . . . assigned for use . . . for a finite period of time" that is shared between the host and client. It issued to sole named inventor Jack Bicer in March 2014, with estimated priority in November 2012 based on the filing of a provisional application. On social media, Bicer holds himself out as an expert witness for "Login/Authentication, Fraudulent Transactions, Account Takeovers, [and] Patent Litigation", having held multiple positions in related fields, including a current position as CEO and CTO with Septium Corporation (since September 2002).
Bicer assigned the '116 patent, as part of a family of three, to Allied Security Trust (AST) in August 2022. Secure Matrix acquired the family in August 2023, about a week after the entity's formation in Delaware on August 21, 2023. In court disclosures, the NPE states that it has no parent corporation and that no publicly held corporation owns 10% or more of its stock. Little public information is available concerning the management or personnel of Secure Matrix, but the plaintiff provides an address that has become associated with Jeffrey M. Gross. After litigating a patent on which he was a named inventor, Gross appears to have taken to patent monetization more generally through the assertion of acquired patents—for background concerning that turn and for coverage of acquisitions by entities apparently associated with Gross, see "Recent Patent Assignments Make Their USPTO Debut" (February 2023). NPEs associated with Gross have now launched roughly 70 litigation campaigns.
Several of Gross's campaigns involved suits filed in Delaware, where the operation of a pair of April 2022 standing orders has revealed that those plaintiffs have been backed by third-party litigation funding (TPLF). RPX covered those disclosures, made by Bright Capture LLC, InvesTrex LLC, and TRON Holdings LLC—plaintiffs associated with Gross—to District of Delaware Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly, in whose courtroom those standing orders now impose heightened disclosure requirements regarding party ownership and TPLF. In those filings, InvesTrex and TRON Holdings have identified Marbit Lending, LLC—formed by Toler Law Group principal Jeffrey G. Toler (as its manager and director) and The Toler Family Trust (as its member)—as having provided funding for their respective litigation actions. Bright Capture has disclosed Bayes Fund LLC (f/k/a Rabicoff Ventures LLC)—an entity formed by Rabicoff Law principal Isaac Rabicoff (as its manager)—as its funder. See "Judge Connolly's Standing Orders Provide Additional Transparency" (April 2023) for more on those disclosures.
Neither the Eastern District nor the Western District of Texas requires litigants to file a certified list of nonparties having an interest in litigation. The Eastern District of Texas cases have been assigned to District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III, while the suits against Microsoft and Zoho have yet to be assigned to a judge. 6/18, Bank of America, Binance, IBM, Line, Sony, Rakuten, Eastern District of Texas; 6/18, Microsoft, Zoho, Western District of Texas.
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